I want to re-do the fir floors in my living room and main-floor
bedroom. The existing finishes include nothing, varnish and paint -
the floor was "finished" only where the furniture and rugs weren't.
We're going to sand the floor lightly with an orbital sander. We're
not so interested in sanding to bright wood as in just getting the
paint and varnish off so we can have a more uniform finish.

Reading about various finishes for fir floors, they all sound too
difficult and time consuming to apply; we'd have to practically move
out of the house. I'm thinking about just applying some paste wax,
something that could be reapplied as needed by me without having to
refinish the whole floor again in a few years. And my sense is that I
can sort of take my time and finish, say, 1/3 of the floor, then move
stuff, do the next third, etc.

What are the drawbacks here? I realize that re-applying wax fairly
regularly may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it works for me since
I use paste wax on my kitchen floor (vinyl composition tiles) already
(by hand) and it's the kind of zen job that doesn't bother me.

Thanks for the help.

MLW